I imagine that most of you reading this piece have
been to spring training before. It's something that
diehard fans tend to do, and once you begin the
tradition, it feels like a given in your life. I'm a
relative newcomer to this experience. I've been
attending spring training since 1996. But ever since
my first spring training, I have dreamed of some day
spending the entire month of March in Arizona,
watching the A's play. This year, I am going down to
Arizona twice.

I love to go probably for the same reasons that you
do. There is the sheer physical pleasure of being in
the sun again after a rainy, cold Bay Area winter.
There is the delight of being back again in my
favorite place in the world, a ballpark, and a small
one at that. There's the joy of seeing the players of
my team out on the field in their home whites.
There's the thrill of being able to connect a name
with a face, to see that prospect that I've read so
much about actually play. There's a happiness in
seeing my general manager just two rows down from
where I sit with his lap full of papers and conferring
with his peers, watching everything to try to ensure
that this will be a good season for all of us. And
this year, there is the added fun of hearing the
drummers over in the bleachers, bringing the magic of
the Oakland Coliseum to Phoenix.

Then there are places where I love to go when I'm in
Arizona and not at the ballpark. My favorite
restaurant is the Havana Café, a small Cuban
restaurant with delicious food, often a baseball
player or broadcaster in attendance, and the most
congenial host in the world. I always go to the Blue
Mountain Café in Old Scottsdale, an espresso joint
full of local characters. And then there's Don and
Charlie's, where there's more than enough memorabilia,
ballplayers, red meat, and hot fudge sauce for one
evening. And this year, I discovered the bar at the
Double Tree Hotel, a place where A's players and
personnel can sometimes be found.

The first weekend of spring training this year, I went
to spring training with a group from this Coalition.
It felt very much like the real version of our
electronic lives. We were lively, often funny,
brilliant, sometimes cantankerous, and ultimately
loving with each other. I felt blessed to be part of
this group.

I don't know if I ever will live out the dream of
spending the entire month of March in Arizona. This
may actually be my last year of spring training. I
believe there will be a work stoppage next year. If
the A's move, I will in all likelihood permanently
retire my major league baseball fan credentials. If
this is the last year, it's a good way to go out,
among friends so dear to my heart, laughing and
arguing as we cheer on our team in these early days of
spring.